This Spring we’re introducing the ‘Buzz About York’ campaign to promote biodiversity and cultivate green spaces that grow and thrive with wildlife.
The ‘Buzz About York’ initiative grew out of a recommendation in the Council Plan 2023-27: One City for All, to make the most of our green infrastructure, to:
- increase biodiversity
- improve health and wellbeing
- support nature recovery, understanding the impact and the difference we make
The campaign will run for a trial period until late August.
Implementation of 'Buzz about York'
We'll be planting trial flowerbeds across the city with perennial plants that are a good source of nectar.
By doing this we are:
- increasing biodiversity
- providing habitat for insects and other wildlife, including the crucial bee population
- reducing CO2 emissions by using perennial plants rather than annual bedding plants
- promoting sustainable landscapes
We will also be introducing a reduced mowing programme in trial areas across the city, to improve habitat for a variety of flora, fauna, animals and insects, including our crucial bee population, by letting grass and flowers grow wild.
Each site is marked with a green sign with the ‘Buzz About York’ logo, making residents and visitors aware of the scheme, and what we are doing at each location.
Plants use in 'Buzz about York'
Perennial plants, or simply perennials, are plants that live more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived species, which grow for one season and then die with the onset of winter.
With perennials, the above-ground portion of the plant dies back in freezing weather but re-grows from the base and rootstock the following spring to bloom again, making them a more carbon-friendly option.
This Spring we will be planting:
- Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation'
- Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Robert'
- Antirrhinum mix (Crimson and Pink)
- Centaurea montana
- Erigeron karvinskianus
- Euonymus fortunei 'Silver Queen'
- Geranium macrorrhizum 'Ingwersen's Variety'
- Hebe 'Little Leaves'
- Lamium maculatum
- Origanum vulgare
- Rosa 'Scented Carpet' or 'Flower Carpet Coral'
- Spiraea 'Goldflame' or 'Firelight'
- Viburnum opulus 'Compactum'
Locations of 'Buzz about York'
Planting areas are selected based on being large enough to provide an environmental benefit without presenting any safety issues for local communities.
Locations where we are trialling the scheme include:
- Duncombe Place
- Blake Street
- Skeldergate
- Station Rise
- Leeman Road junction
Also see
- Grass cutting in York
- Climate change
- York Green Streets Project
- York Community Woodland
- Treemendous York
- Trees, hedgerows and woodlands